What does the Abya Yala Pluriversity do?

We facilitate the exchange of pluriversal knowledges in universities in Abya Yala (the Americas), to counterpoint epistemic erasures in academia, with a focus on Indigenous and Black people and knowledges currently vivid in villages (aldeias, aldeas), quilombos, palenques, cumbes, and urban territories.

Network

We have a faculty network committed to give support to academic exchanges and local experiences in Abya Yala to counter the erasure of Indigenous and Black knowledges in the academe.

Science and Technology

We support the formation of Countercolonial Bowls and their Confluence in Abya Yala to reframe science and technology beyond western thinking.

Knowledge Infrastructure

We are structuring a library centered on the knowledges of Indigenous and Quilombola peoples curated by the communities to increase the representation of other knowledges in academia.

This initiative has been inspired by the emergence of Indigenous universities, in specific the Centro Universitario del Pueblo Xhidza, a Zapoteco university which first steps started in 2012 where we now call Santa Maria Yaviche, in Oaxaca, México, and whose call for the first cohort in communal engineering (enginería comunal) started in 2017. While the inclusion of Black and Indigenous people in western universities is an urgent step in decolonizing academia, there is the crucial need of reverting epistemic hierarchies to learn with Black and Indigenous science and technology, oral traditions, arts, literature and other forms of knowledges.

estudantes

+ 0

Países

+ 0

Instituições

+ 0

About

The Abya Yala Pluriversity (Pluriversidad•e Abya Yala) is a network of Indigenous universities and traditional universities in Abya Yala (the Americas) that aim to counterpoint epistemic erasures in academia by supporting the circulation of Indigenous people and knowledges in the affiliated institutions, as well as Black people and knowledges that honor the alliances between Indigenous and Black people against settler colonialism and the history of bodies and territories of resistance in villages (aldeias, aldeas), cumbes, palenques, quilombos, etc., and urban territories.

Values

The Abya Yala Pluriversity is founded on the principle of a pluriversal world, where the respect and recognition of plural ways of knowing and being guide our activities.

For that, it is also based on the principles of interconnectedness and autonomy.

Visiting Fellows

Universities and Organizations

Universities and organizations whose faculty is part of this network!

Events

Pluriversity Abya Yala’s Anticolonial Cuia in Maré

On October 15, the Abya Yala Pluriversity held the Cuia Anticolonial Maré: Understanding and Being Afro-Indigenous. In a neighborhood made up of 15 favelas and home to approximately 140,000 residents, where 62.1% of the population self-identifies as Black and 0.6% as Indigenous, we spent the day engaged in an intense exchange of knowledge and struggles.

Pluriversity Abya Yala’s Anticolonial Cuia in Campinas

The Pluriversity Abya Yala's Anticolonial Cuia in Campinas organized by the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Tainã Cultural Center took place from May 16 to 21, 2025, in Campinas and Limeira. Under the theme “Articulations of Black and Indigenous Epistemologies and Technological Dissidences,” the activities brought together students, activists, and researchers to explore intersections between ancestral knowledge systems, community agency, and critical approaches to technology.

Pluriversity Abya Yala’s Anticolonial Cuia in Aracaju

The event featured the Exhibition Women of Abya Yala, which brought together diverse artistic and cultural expressions: Indigenous feather art, bio-jewelry from the Cinta Vermelha-Jundiba Village, books, Xokó ceramics, and products from the Rede Solidária de Mulheres of Sergipe. There were also toré performances conducted by master Dona Bárbara Pankararu, her grandson Yuriê Pankararu, and the leaders Joseane Xokó and Danny Xokó.

Pluriversity Abya Yala’s Anticolonial Cuia in Manaus

The event sought to create spaces for learning, dialogue, and counter-colonial listening with women from the Amazon regions. Rooted in the understanding that women across the world had been experiencing accelerated workloads and expanding responsibilities, the gathering focused on the specific realities faced by women in the Brazilian Amazon.

Abya Yala Pluriversity Week of Science and Technology, April 5th, Friday

The Abya Yala Pluriversity Week of Science and Technology took place between April 1 and 5, 2024 and marked the inauguration of the Abya Yala Pluriversity initiative at Virginia Tech, which supports the circulation of Indigenous and Black people and knowledges in academia.

coming soon

The Anticolonial Confluence on Science and Technology

Is an event that is being planned to happen in the Amazon region that aims to be an infrastructure of knowledge to explore the notion of pluriversality, counter-, de- and anticoloniality as foundations for a science and technology project in Abya Yala.

Join us

Do you want to know more and be part of it? These are the people who are already part of Pluriversity and can be contacted, then, you can find out more about the Initiative, talk about ideas and projects.

Blog

Here you get to know some of the Fellow’s experiences

Yunuen Torres Ascencio, a P’urhépecha woman and the first participant of Abya Yala Pluriversity

(Originally written in Spanish) I am Yunuen Torres Ascencio, a P’urhépecha woman who has lived the defense of the territory from the core. I come

April 5, 2024 No Comments

About

The Abya Yala Pluriversity was launched in the first week of April 2024, with the Abya Yala Pluriversity Week in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech, in the lands of Tutelo and Monacan people, with a series of events around the visit of Yunuen Torres Ascencio, from where we call today Cherán, México.

Sponsorship

This initiative has received the support of the Social Science Research Council Just Tech Fellowship, with funds of the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Democracy Fund.

Feito com ♥ pelo Mundo da Má